Summary
Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary, currently streaming onCrunchyroll,has one of the most visually sumptuous first episodes to exist. Combined with a high school setting that’s mysterious in more ways than one, and the result is an excellent first impression worth seeing. If the rest of the episodes maintain this quality,Shoshimincould be Summer 2024’s hidden gem, nestled between other big-name adaptations.
Crunchyroll’s Summer 2024 anime seasonhas opened with a barrage of flashy first episodes, be it the fights inWistoria: Sword and Wandor the acrobatics fromThe Elusive Samurai.While Lapin Track might not garner the same recognition as CloverWorks or Wit Studio, their work onShoshiminmight change that.
With visuals that could be mistaken for something from an animated movie, this show might be worth watching this season on the strength of its art alone, not to mention its teasing plot.
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It’s not hyperbole to say thatShoshiminlooks like a movie. Aesthetically, the art has a strong emphasis on soft colors, lifelike backgrounds, and naturalistic lighting effects. Combined with a first episode that revolves around the relative mundaneity of school, the anime does feel like aMakoto Shinkai-esque drama.
Even with the realism, however, the directing does hint at more surreal shots down the line, with one particular sequence showing the protagonists, Kobato and Osanai, holding a conversation that cuts across multiple scenes and distances. With any luck, such stylizations will prove thatShishominhas more than just pretty backgrounds.
A cryptic first episode also helps string viewers along. Kobato and Osanai are intriguing characters, who hint at their full abilities, but hold back out of a desire to live “normal lives”. Nonetheless, seeing them pick apart a case of a missing bag revealsthe show’s ultimate identity, which is a blend of drama and mystery. It’s a testament to Lapin Track’s confidence in their story that the studio chooses to go against the grain by refusing to lay out the premise with lengthy exposition, instead teasing the audience into waiting for the next episode.
While it has an understated first episode, compared to the bombast andexciting action from other animefans have been waiting for, it would be a shame to skip out on this show, which promises both amazing art and multiple slow-boiling mysteries in the form of both the main characters' pasts and the troubles they will wind up facing.
It should make for one of the most unique entries of Summer 2024.Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinarymight masquerade as a slice-of-life anime show, or even a high school drama, but it could very well be something even more fantastic.
